Morning glory bush. See all the buds.
September Chat, Picutres, and Whatnot...
NOID brug. I rescued this one from the Plant Outlet in Conway a few weeks ago. They had marked it down to $5 and it already had a bunch of buds on it.
Tropical hibiscus with a little yellow butterfly.
You gave me some abbeydore this year--I have lost all the tags, they faded and I can't tell what any of them are but Carl--I remember where I put it because that was my Fathers first name
Marilyn, that cat looks a little bit like a tomato hornworm and it sure did some damage. That is really sad about your JM. Have you posted on the Insect and Spider ID forum? Someone over there is really knowledgeable and usually posts an ID in a day or two.
I think Carl is the complete name of that sedum. http://www.waltersgardens.com/plants/view/?plant=1948
I lost so many sedums, but I keep trying. they rot in the spring when we get so much rain, guess my back flower garden isn't a good place forthem. I might get a huge clay pot next spring and plant several diff ones in the same pot, see how they do.
No, Elaine, I haven't posted a pic of that caterpillar on the ID forum but I will try to do that tomorrow. If you are talking about the big green caterpillars that eat tomato plants, this one was not nearly as big as one of those.
The hot summer seems to have brought out lots of bad critters!
That is one ugly, prickly looking caterpillar, Kathy Ann. Ugh! I'd like to know what it is if anyone finds out.
Well, you may have heard me shouting all the way where you are this morning. The ground is wet and we haven't seen that in weeks. The rain gauge has a whole quarter inch of rain in it but hopefully more on the way. Like I told someone, gardening around here lately has been with a pick ax and a stick of dynamite.
But the old faithfuls like this Russian Sage just keep on keeping on. It was two tiny little cuttings about a month ago.
Here's what it is
http://bugguide.net/node/view/360950
Too bad you did not get to read that page first--it said "Do not touch"
How are your fingers this morning?
Woohoo ... here it comes again. Hadn't heard the sound of rain in so long I was wondering what it was there for a minute. I have a small order on the way from a nursery and will need to get it in the ground so I have been waiting with baited breath for the liquid stuff to fall. Yippeeee................................
Yesterday I went into a store and the gal at the door said something to the effect of hoping it didn't rain so she wouldn't have to dry off wet shopping carts. I resisted the urge to slap her silly. ;-)
I am no expert on much of anything these days, but I have been growing my sedum in pots. One had a nasty attack of mites but other than that, they have done well. I haven't gotten around to planting them in the ground ... well, actually that has been impossible lately. One thing I have had success with is raised beds for succulents and cacti.
Marilyn, I was wondering whether to leave my EE in the ground over winter. I think I should be able to here although I am in a bit of a colder zone than you (6b-7a here). I have lots of leaves and was going to mulch the EE with a very thick layer of the leaves. What do you think?
Any other input appreciated too.
It depends on what kind of EE's you have, Carole. Some seem to make it through the winter in my zone with no trouble but I had an Illustris that made it through the winter of '08-'09 okay and did not come back after our harder winter of '09-'10.
If I were you, I would maybe dig one or two to put in pots and store in your garage and then you could leave some others in the ground. That way you have a chance of saving the ones in the pots if the ones in the ground don't make it through the winter. It's a guessing game. I'm so glad you finally got some rain! :o))
Fingers are back to normal. Look at these morning glories in front of the shop, their about l2 foot tall now, all the way to the top of the shop building.
and my hyacinth vine smells so good
Now i'm off to do something constructive, my only day off and I need to utilize it wisely lol
Thanks, Marilyn, that's a good idea ... divide and conquer. No matter what, you're covered. How deep do you mulch yours? I'll have about a ton of leaves, so I can mulch pretty deep.
We're up to 3/4" of rain now and still raining. But who's counting? ;-)
Love the Hyacinth Bean Vine, Kathy Ann.
LOL Sandra! I would be living the song instead of just hearing it. I feel your pain!
I put the seed out 3 days before it rained, they never touched it.
Nice Pink Swirl Luna Carole!! LOL Carole, I think I would have slapped her silly, how much of a drought does she want anyway?
KA Now that's a wild cat! You should post it on the ID forum.
Charlotte nice blooms!! I love that yellow brug, and orange hibiscus. If I had my way about it, my whole yard would be every variety of hardy hibiscus, brugs, iris, and dats.
Sometimes it takes them awhile to get used to a feeder. Most birds are very cautious. Once they decide a feeder is harmless and of benefit to them, they all jump on board. Still think a change of seed, fresh seed, and dry seed will help. If not, then there must be something about that feeder that they just don't like, too difficult to get the seed or something. Or they aren't hungry enough. ;-)
We're at about an inch of H2O now with a break in the rain. Really, a break would be okay because today and tomorrow is the big annual Riverfest with lots going on outside downtown along the river ... and they need some good weather. But more rain is on the way and that's just fine as far as I'm concerned.
Oh goody, goody, goody ... box just arrived from the nursery. I'll be in plant heaven for awhile and now won't even need the pick ax and dynamite in order to plant. I've forgotten exactly what I ordered but I know there is a yucca, several different sedums, an echinacea "Tomato Soup", a graptopetalum, and something I've never grown before: Sarracenia flava.
Gotta go unpack. :-)
Where did yo uorder at ?
I just bought 4 sea grapes off ebay. I use to have these before, but lost them in the gh fire.
really want the variegated one. thse get big but can stay small in pots.
http://mgonline.com/articles/seagrape.aspx
got mine off ebay.
here's the variegated one
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/95722/
Cool. I remember seeing those when in Florida.
I ordered these plants from Plant Delights Nursery. I find unusual things there that I can't get around here, and they are punctual with shipping and pleasant to work with as well as almost the same climate zone. But I only order from them when I am flush with cash (ha, ha) cause they ain't cheap. But they are a Botanic Garden (Juniper Level Botanic Gardens) and they do a lot of plant importing and propagation and so forth so I don't feel too bad about supporting them a little when I can. Every now and then I treat myself. :-)
If all goes well, I will have the red echinacea (var. "Tomato Soup") seeds to share next year. Yay!
It's nice to treat oneself once in a while.
WE're headed to a 2 l/2 hr drive to go fishing all weekend, be back sunday night, wish us luck, last time we went to this place we caught about 40 huge catfish i'm talking huge!!!
i'm excited.
oh and we're roughing it. I had to talk him into letting me bring a cot. lol
GOOD LUCK KA!!!!!! Catch more HUGE catfish!!! mmmmmmmmmm
I I think I found out what was wrong with the bird seed, it was full of ants!!!! I took it down from the hook, got the RAID and sprayed the hook to kill all the ants on that, beat the ants off of the feeder and dumped the seed on the ground, knocked the rest of the ants off of it, sprayed the hook with PAM, put more seed in the feeder and we're going to try this again.
Our MG group went on a garden tour today in Arkadelphia. This is a very unique garden and just thought you might enjoy seeing it. You will see the owner in one of the last pictures in his wine cellar. He has on a safari hat and a tropical looking shirt. He has built a tropical fantasy land. Everything you see has built or planted. There are two bridges leading to the buddish temple looking thing. He just built it this summer. I had someone stand in front just to give an idea of the size. It is built primarily out of styrofoam and Drivet. He builts the basic shape out of 2 x 4's and then adds the styrofroam he gets from boat docks. He carves it to the shape he wants and then covers it with Drivet. He converted a large room in the downstairs of his house into a wine cellar using the same concept. It was hard to take pictures down there as it is very dark and the flash made it look much lighter and brighter than it actually is. Also note the purple vine in one of the photos. It is a fall wisteria. Also the arbor that holds the wisteria and jasmine was built with tree limbs that already had resurrection fern growing on them. He built the thatched roof on the teki bar using the palemento type plants that grow wild somewhere in the area. It doesn't show up very well in the photo, but at one end of the waterfall area he has replicated a small beach. It has sand and some smaller rocks.
http://picasaweb.google.com/charlotte.perdue1/MorganSGarden92010?authkey=Gv1sRgCM2L6df2q__4lQE#
If any of you are wondering what Dryvit (Drivet) is, it is a synthetic stucco finish. Buddy did that kind of work, which is how I know. :o)) Charlotte, I am going to look at your link now.
Kathy Ann, I know you have probably already left but I just wanted to say enjoy your week-end and I 'm glad your fingers are better. That caterpillar was a nasty critter! The mg vine and hyacinth vine are both beautiful!
Carole, it is my understanding that those hybrid coneflowers such as your Tomato Soup (I have one, too) usually don't come true from seed but it would be interesting to try the seeds and see out what happens next season.
I'm still here, leaving about 3:30 instead of when I thought we were,
Is this a baby rattle snake? I wasn't sure where to post this at, don't see a snake id forum just a insect and spider id forum.
I posted on fb too
Charlotte, love those pictures. that's a nice place, amazing what money can do lol
here's another pic
Kathy Ann, it appears that it's some kind of rattler. We had a number of rattlers in CA (Diamondbacks mostly) but I haven't seen one in years so my ID ability is very rusty. Where did you find him/her?
Charlotte, that's quite a place he has and he seems to enjoy it. :-) Our MGs here have a semi-annual plant sale where you can get some dandy things very reasonably priced. If you can get there early enough!
Marilyn, yes I've heard that the seeds don't always come true. It will be interesting to see. I put in purple, yellow, and Twilight coneflower last year but haven't grown any from seed. Did harvest some of those seeds and sent to a friend in Indiana who wants to sow them in her garden. So we'll see what happens with all of that. I like the red cf. I'm going the direction of a big butterfly garden and awaiting my certification as a 'Monarch Waystation'. I had been trying to decide what kind of a "garden" I wanted but we had so many butterflies in the yard this year, I could hardly believe it ... so that sort of led in a direction, among others. ;-) I have planted a number of plants they favor, cf being one of them. But I am just getting started with this yard. Long way to go!
What would we do without old faithfuls like crepe myrtle? That's one of the first things I planted when I got back to the South. ;-)
Here is what that ugly stinging caterpillar turns into.
Kathy Ann he didn't spend lots of money doing it. He made it all himself and most of the material was free boat dock styrofoam. The only material he buys is the DryVit to coat the styrofoam. He buys it wholesale in large quantities. A lot of the rocks around the pool he also made. He works on his yard every day. He hires young high school and college students to help him with some of the labor otherwise he does everything himself.
That makes it all the better that he didn't have to spend a lot of $. Very impressive. It shows what can be done.
Raining again this morning, after this summer I'll take all I can get.
Beauty Berry at it's finest
Love your beauty berry! I bought one home from the woods last year. The berries are turning on it also but it is not anywhere the size of yours. Can't wait until mine gets larger.
Nice beauty berry.
OK, what do you gals over there in AR know that I don't here in TN about making it rain?? Ha, ha! Nothing here since yesterday although it is clouding up now and breezy ... and humid as the dickens again. Maybe some more precip will fall later on.
Everything has perked up so much from our inch of rain yesterday. The EE are noticably more upright today. :-) The herbs are still doing okay since they like it warm and dry most of the time anyway. I've still got Spicy Globe basil, Anise/Licorice basil, flat leaf parsley, Sweet basil leaf visible far right, back is Pineapple sage and Stevia. The dill went to seed awhile back and the lemon balm and thyme are on the way out. The oregano and rosemary are still good. I really enjoy herbs and cooking with them.
Does anyone know what this is ... the plant growing from the right with the small pinky purple flowers and pointed leaves? It came up volunteer beside the driveway and I let it grow to see what it was.
Took a few pics today. Not really sure how things are hanging on like they are with no rain, but at least we know what is drought tolerant.
After most of the morning glories burning up some had managed to hang on.
